Adam Wainwright's win over the Pirates in Game 5 on Wednesday put the Cardinals into the National League Championship Series and marked the sixth time in team history a starter had gone the distance for a victory in a winner-take-all finale. More >

With a 6-1 win over the Pirates in Game 5 of the National League Division Series on Wednesday, the Cardinals sealed an NL Championship Series matchup against the NL West-champion Dodgers. The two teams faced each other seven times this season, though the results of those head-to-head games may not be all that accurate an indicator for what's on tap. More >

After Adam Wainwright unleashed his 107th pitch of the night to strike out Pedro Alvarez, red and white confetti went floating in the autumn air, along with anticipation of a third consecutive appearance in the National League Championship Series for the Cardinals. More >

The Pirates' clubhouse was full of brave smiles and heartfelt hugs Wednesday night, as if players wanted to wrap up in the spirit of 2013 -- when the Bucs ended two decades of losing records and appeared in the postseason for the first time since 1992. Of course, there always comes a time to let go. This is especially true of Pittsburgh's potential free agents. More >

Wednesday night hurt. Thursday will come with pain, too. There is actually pleasure in that, because it is the pain of privilege. And it comes with a bookmark. Managers of all postseason losers tell their teams the same thing. And now Clint Hurdle was able to tell his Pirates, "Don't forget this feeling. Come back next year and build on it." More >

On a night when scoring was hard to come by and their only run came on a trio of fluky infield hits, the Pirates met their match. It was singularly in the form of Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright, and their fate was handed down partly by way of a couple of poorly placed line drives. More >

With the support of another elimination-game home run from David Freese and stingy defense behind him, Adam Wainwright went the distance and pitched the Cardinals to a 6-1 win over a Pirates team that had pestered them all season. It was the third victory the Cardinals needed to move out of the NL Division Series and on to a NL Championship Series showdown with the Dodgers. More >

Manager Mike Matheny announced the Cardinals' rotation plans for the first three games of the National League Championship Series, and as expected, Joe Kelly will start Game 1 on Friday, Michael Wacha will follow in Game 2 and then Adam Wainwright will toss Game 3 in Los Angeles. More >

Gerrit Cole, who paid for a homer he allowed to David Freese by being charged with the loss in Wednesday's 6-1 decision that sent the Cardinals to the National League Championship Series and sent the Pirates home, took it the way he's done everything else since being called to the Majors in June. More >

David Freese's postseason heroics in 2011 -- a walk-off homer in Game 6 of the World Series -- have enshrined him as a hometown idol. And after Wednesday's Game 5 of the National League Division Series, those cheers in St. Louis may get even louder. More >

With David Freese's early two-run homer off Gerrit Cole propping up cool Adam Wainwright's pitching, the Cardinals prevailed, 6-1, in Wednesday night's Game 5 of the National League Division Series, and the Pirates hit the end of the road. More >

Pirates slugger Pedro Alvarez wanted more, but at least he pushed across the team's first run against Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright with two outs in the seventh inning of the deciding fifth game of the National League Division Series on Wednesday night. Alvarez's RBI was his sixth of the series and seventh of the postseason. He is the first player in Major League history to drive in a run in each of his first six playoff games. More >

For the second time in five days at O.co Coliseum, A's rookie Sonny Gray will be facing veteran Detroit right-hander and former AL Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, who has owned the A's in his last three ALDS starts during the past two postseasons. More >

The choice not to start Bartolo Colon in Game 5 of the American League Division Series was difficult enough for A's manager Bob Melvin. Deciding whether to use him out of the bullpen for Thursday's elimination affair may prove even harder. More >

If A's manager Bob Melvin makes a change to his postseason lineup for Game 5 of the American League Division Series, the change will come at second base, with Alberto Callaspo taking the place of Eric Sogard. More >